INVESTIGADORES
LOIZAGA DE CASTRO Rocio
artículos
Título:
Mitochondrial and microsatellite assessment of population
Autor/es:
FEIJOO, M; LESSA, E. P.; LOIZAGA DE CASTRO, R.; CRESPO, E.A.
Revista:
MARINE BIOLOGY
Editorial:
SPRINGER
Referencias:
Año: 2011 p. 1 - 11
ISSN:
0025-3162
Resumen:
Several major breeding areas have been defined for the South American sea lion (Otaria flavescens) along the Atlantic Ocean including the Uruguayan and Patagonian coasts. Together with a documented and severe reduction in population sizes caused by commercial hunting in the last century, these areas show opposite population trends. While Patagonian populations are recovering since hunting ceased, Uruguayan populations are declining. In this context, population genetic structure and genetic diversity were studied for the first time with both nuclear (microsatellites) and mitochondrial (control region) markers together. Alternative scenarios were found for both markers. While mitochondrial marker showed geographi-cally structured populations, the nuclear loci showed a lack of geographical structure. These opposite patterns in genetic structure could be explained by female phylopatry and high male dispersion. The reduction in population size caused by commercial hunting did not leave a detectable footprint of bottleneck at the genetic level.
